“And how would we see and understand the goodness of God apart from what we see as evil?”
Yes, the evil that he created. Remember he’s all powerful, thus evil is part of his creation.
So if he is so full of goodness why does he cause evil to run rampant?
I mean who goes around allowing innocent kids to be tortured and murdered, when he could easily have prevented? Would you? And if you allowed that, would you consider yourself full of “goodness”?
These are really simple questions... but then again I’m pretty simple minded.
God does not create evil - although he allows calamity and various other incidents that draw us to Him...and also He created us with the ability to choose.
I challenge you to read the first lines in Genesis .... You’ll see creation and you’ll see chaos ....so what happened after God created the heavens and the earth, before He created light...and why did he have to create light.
When God creates it’s not void and empty.